Ed Miliband 'should disclose which lobbyists Labour is meeting'

Ed Miliband should publish details of who shadow Cabinet ministers are meeting,
according to a senior Cabinet minister.

Ed MilibandPhoto: Eddie Mulholland

By Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent

8:48AM BST 03 Sep 2013

Andrew Lansley made the remarks as MPs start to debate a new anti-lobbying law, being brought in to regulate access to ministers by lobbyists.

Mr Lansley, who as the Leader of the House is steering the legislation through the House of Commons, said the Opposition should follow the Coalition’s leader on transparency about meetings.

He said: “For the public to know who is lobbying whom, transparency is what it is all about, and we are the first Government to publish ministerial diaries.

“I do hope that the Labour Party in the debate this afternoon will say we are going to publish shadow ministerial diaries because they are part of the political system too.”

He said the Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill, which will bring in a new lobbying register, would make consultants who lobby on behalf of big supermarkets like Tesco to have to disclose what meetings were about.

He said: “Tesco might meet a particular minister, they might discuss a particular issue and that’ll be recorded in the minister’s diary but if the X, Y, Z consultant lobbying company meets a minister it’s not disclosed as a consequence of that necessarily who they are lobbying on behalf of.

"So the register is just that, it is a register of consultant lobbyists and we’re putting that in statute and it’s a compliment to the voluntary work being done rightly in the industry in establishing a voluntary register and a code for many others who are engaged in lobbying themselves."

The new rules will apply to anyone who is found to be “personally making communications to ministers and permanent secretaries about government policy, legislation or contracts and grants, on behalf of another person and in return for payment”.

This could apply to law firms or accountancy practices which had staff who were specifically employed to lobby ministers and officials.

Lobbyists who refuse to comply could be dragged through the courts and be left with a criminal record and an unlimited fine for severe wrong-doing,

Political consultants will be required to update their entry every three months. Those who deliberately leave off clients’ details would face prosecution.

Mr Lansley also said he had met with charities on Monday and had assured them that they would only get caught by the law if they spent "significant amounts of money" to campaign on certain issues and supported a candidate or party during election periods.

He said: “We are not setting out in any sense to constrain any charity or organisation that wants to campaign on policy issues.”